National Express begins German rail operations

NATIONAL Express launched its first passenger operations on the German mainline network on December 13, when it took over the operation of two regional routes in North Rhine Westphaila from DB Regio.

Rhine Ruhr Transport Authority (VRR) awarded National Express a 15-year concession in February 2013 to operate RE7 Rhine-Münsterland Express (Rheine – Münster – Wuppertal – Cologne – Krefeld) and RB48 (Wuppertal – Solingen – Cologne – Bonn) services, covering a total of around 5.1 million train-km per year. National Express says it expects to carry around 18 million passengers per year on the two routes and generate €1.6bn across the duration of the concession.